Monday, January 17, 2011

Sony's New 65-inch Bravia 3D TV

The hot word at CES 2011 was undoubtedly 3D. There wasn't a booth you could walk into without hearing or seeing something about 3D. Even companies that had no 3D products whatsoever were using it to draw people in. If there was one company, however, that was severely showing off their 3D technology, it was Sony. Their new Bravia line of displays is what they were mainly touting which includes 27 new models of LCD panels.

The biggest and baddest of the group is definitely the Bravia XBR-65HX292, an LED backlit LCD panel with everything you could want in a t.v. Sony has decided to go with local dimming as opposed to edge lit LED technology which makes for a slightly deeper display. Sony calls it Sony's Intelligent Peak LED which gives you the ability to turn the backlight off in specific areas. This gives your LCD panel plasma-like contrast and black levels. Sony matches this with their MotionFlow XR 960 backlight control which precisely synchronizes the dimming with the liquid crystal movement in order to reduce motion blur.

This display also has an integrated Wi-Fi receiver so you don't have to use a wired connection, although the display does have Ethernet ports. Through this you can have access to Sony's Bravia Internet video and Qriocity. Sony's Bravia Internet Video Platform comes with Sony's Video on Demand and Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity as well as Pandora, Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon, Video on Demand, YouTube, Slacker Internet Radio, Crackle and Blip.tv. Video on Demand powered by Qriocity is a premium video streaming service that gives you instant access to hit movies, where Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity is a cloud-based music streaming service that allows users to have access at any time to a catalog of over 6 million music tracks from all the major labels.

Customers can also use Skype if they want to, but they will need to buy a camera and microphone separately. Sony's camera and mic will allow you to enjoy free widescreen Skype-to-Skype video calls anywhere. However, the one thing everybody is talking about is the 3D. A lot of people were talking about the new polarized glasses, but this display will be using Active Shutter glasses. Unfortunately, these are sold separately and will probably be pretty expensive. Most Active Shutter glasses on the market today are at least $100.

One interesting thing in this new display is the X-Reality PRO Engine. According to Sony, "The X-Reality PRO Engine is a two-chip digital video processor that optimizes high definition content, compressed HD signals, standard definition and other sources including low resolution Internet content. Utilizing a vast database of "ideal" signal patterns developed by analyzing and indexing an enormous library of film and video, the X-Reality PRO Engine compares incoming signals pixel-by-pixel with ideal scenes to display vivid and detailed images."

It is still unclear as to what this is or how it will work, but it may be something you or your installer may want to turn off. This display is custom installation friendly and has key features like rear IR-input and a two-way RS232c connection for easier integration with third party control systems. It can also stream media from a USB port. Sony's Media Remote app is also pretty cool. It gives you simple operation and allows you to search for internet content. A media bar is also included which resembles the one for the PS3, and the new UI provides uninterrupted viewing by disseminating the video and placing key menu functions along the bottom and side of the picture frame.

Overall this new display looks really good. Sony is known for making top of the line devices and their displays are usually something to talk about.